The present invention relates to a tape drive apparatus, and more particularly, to a head cleaning mechanism for a tape drive.
Japanese Published Unexamined Patent application JP11-296827A2 discloses a typical tape drive apparatus provided with a cleaning mechanism for a read/write converter head. In this related art, the tape drive apparatus has a converter head for reading the data tape of a loaded tape cartridge, and a cleaning device for cleaning the converter head. The cleaning device has a support arm and a rotatable cleaning brush at the end of the arm. When necessary, the converter head can be cleaned by inserting the support arm between the data tape and converter head.
However, this related art has the following problems. First, since the converter head is cleaned when the data tape is in contact with the converter head, the data tape is pushed out away from the head by the cleaning brush. This places excessive tension on the data tape, resulting in a problem from the point of view of data protection.
Moreover, an independent drive source is required to drive the support arm and thereby the cost is increased. In addition, the internal space available for the other mechanisms in the tape drive is reduced to provide installation space for the drive source. Thereby, the entire structure is more complicated and the cost is also increased due to the complication of the structure.
The present invention has been proposed to eliminate the problems explained above and therefore an object of the present invention is to provide a tape drive apparatus of simplified structure enabling cleaning of the converter head at predetermined times.
In the present invention, a head cleaning unit for cleaning a read/write converter head moves to a withdrawn position from a cleaning position when a loading mechanism is driven toward a loading side (set position side) of a tape cartridge, that is, as a tape cartridge is loaded. The head cleaning unit moves to the cleaning position from the withdrawn position in synchronization with the loading mechanism moving toward the tape cartridge eject side of the loading mechanism, that is, when the tape cartridge is ejected.
The withdrawn position may be set within the apparatus so that it is located at an area away from the running path of the data tape, that is, where interference with the data tape is not generated. Moreover, the moving path of the head cleaning unit may be linear or curved.
With cooperation between the operation of the tape cartridge and operation of the head cleaning unit, automatic cleaning of the converter head can be realized through insertion and removal of the tape cartridge, without any action by a user. Therefore, the converter head can always be maintained in the clean condition, improving reliability of read and write operations. Moreover, since the cleaning operation of the converter head is performed after the loading mechanism has exhausted the tape cartridge, namely when the data tape is not present, the data tape is not damaged.
In known devices the movable part of the loading mechanism, for example, is monitored with a sensor and the head cleaning unit is driven with an adequate actuator in order to synchronize the operation of the head cleaning unit with that of the loading mechanism. With the present invention, it is no longer required to additionally provide such a sensor or actuator for head cleaning purposes, and the structure may be simplified. Manufacturing cost can also be reduced because displacement of the movable part of the loading mechanism can adequately be transferred to the head cleaning unit via the transferring part. In this case, the transfer part is adequate when it can transfer the movement of the movable part of the loading mechanism to the head cleaning part. This can be accomplished by adjusting the moving stroke between the cleaning position and withdrawn position of the head cleaning unit.